Kean Page #3

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- Why?

To live!

- Bah!

One doesn't act

in order to earn bread.

One acts to lie,

to escape oneself,

to be what one's not,

or because one's had enough

of being what one is.

One acts so to not know oneself.

Or cause one knows oneself too well. Yes.

We play heroic roles

because we're cowards,

roles of saints

because we're sinners,

and roles as murderers,

because we'd like

to kill our neighbor.

We act because we're liars

from birth,

because we love truth

and hate it at the same time.

And above all we act

because we'd go crazy

not acting.

Acting!

Do I know it, maybe, when I'm acting?

Is there any moment

when I stop acting, I?

Look at me, right now,

for example, am I acting or...

Elena's carriage!

Throw out the little girl, Salomon!

- No! - Quick! I await you inside!

Go! Out!

Come, little one. You need to obey.

See how rabid he is?

Damn countesses!

Don't worry,

I'll take care of that!

What're you mean?

- Nothing, don't worry!

You go to the dressingroom

and try to keep him calm.

Stop! Stop!

Madam, would you be so good

as to accompany down the street?

O, but we know each other!

- I fear there's a mistake.

No, we don't know each other.

- How not?!

We were supposed to meet

this very evening.

Not here,

but it's the same, no?

A sign it was destined.

I'm very happy.

But you're not...

- Yes, yes. I'm Anna Damby,

the daughter of the Irish cheesemaker

who's supposed to marry Lord Mewill.

I'm glad you

declined to go to the reception.

For many it'll be

a big bother to go to a party

and then find

the party's not on anymore!

Go on!

Nothing! Nothing!

Master, you've been drinking all

evening! - Let me alone!

Okay. - I said

she wouldn't come.

So what?

Countesses are made like that.

Great evening! Even the aspiring

actress is missing!

And so Edmund -

Mr. Kean -

so encouraged me that

I decided to take the big step.

I want to become an actress.

I shan't marry Lord Mewill anymore.

So you ran away at the last moment?

It's a scandal!

Why? Being an actress

is perhaps less respectable...

I speak not of that, but of breaking the

engagement the eve of the wedding.

And it's a scandal that someone

your age rambles around alone, at night,

in streets near the theater.

- Stop! - It's a scandal

that at a party the best society's

been invited to,

from the prince to the ambassadors..

- Your husband went, yes?

Well, I bet he'll be very happy

to go back home.

Engagement parties

are so boring,

So boring that you didn't go.

Thanks, I'm here.

- Stay, I'll see you home. - No.

Look, madam, you

have certainly more experience than I

and maybe you're right to say

a young woman,

like me, must not be found

outside an actor's dressing room,

so,

you want to be an actress too?

I don't understand what you mean.

If it's not acceptable that I go

see Mr. Kean...

Ah! So you were going

to see Mr. Kean?

- You weren't? - I, Mr. Kean,

I see him in the theater,

from my box, when he plays.

- Excuse me,

but I thought I saw your carriage

heading for Mr. Kean's dressingroom.

My carriage stopped

because you asked it to.

I was going home!

- Right.

The lady desires to go home.

Thanks.

- You're welcome.

Come to applaud me!

To applaud me!

I hoped to find you in better humor!

When someone's in love

and waiting for his own beloved...

In fact I'm in the best of humor!

- So she came?

Of course she came!

- I'm very happy.

And she's Irish too?

- Who? - Your beloved.

I've the impression

you've been drinking.

When there're two of you...

Usually one doesn't drink alone...

One wants to know what you want, you?

What do you want?

Don't scream like that.

People are sleeping at this hour!

Next, I already told you want I want.

I want to act.

Ah, yes?

You really want to sell yourself?

Is it really necessary?

- If you want to be an actress,

it's indispensable. You have to be

pretty, but very pretty.

Let's see, with the author, the

director, the leading man, naturally,

and, note well,

don't notice the extras.

In regard to the author,

I'm okay:
Shakespeare's dead.

As for the director... he usually does

what the leading man wants.

That leaves the leading man.

Suppose you're going

to find in his dressingroom

our national glory,

our great Kean,

to ask him for help.

Well, do you think Kean would let

himself be moved by sentimentalism?

The actor Kean

knows life too well, little one.

And women.

Let's try to imagine the scene!

Here:
I'm Kean, you're... you're you.

Go back upstairs and repeat the entry.

Let's see if you can improvise.

Courage!

- I can come? - Come on, come on!

You make the entry, good...

I bow, very good...

Mr. Kean?

- Yes?

I want to be an actress.

- No, see? You start off wrong.

You must grasp the seed of the character

and follow its natural evolution.

For example, Kean, what is he?

Kean is a

drunk.

- No! Kean is vain.

You have to court him a bit,

to get his imagination working.

I don't have imagination.

- Give in to your heart!

You have one, I hope!

- Silence!

In your house you're mistress,

but in the street we're all masters!

Start over!

- Let's go over there.

And you want to be an actress?

Learn to treat the public

as it deserves.

Really!

- Silence!

Entry, you! Come on, move!

She wants to be an actress

and has no imagination...

Go away please!

Here I'm finally at his door!

- Yes.

Dare I tell him

what he's incited in me? - Yes.

O, my God! My God!

- My God, my God...

Give me strength

for I fear I'm growing feint.

Okay, not bad.

What do you want of me?

Your voice!

- That's a good note.

Pardon, sir, my turmoil.

It's more than natural.

Good.

- For, modest though you are,

you'll understand

that your fame...

That's the right tone.

- ...your talent...

Good, go on like that.

- ...your genius

moves me even more than

your assurance of your welcome.

Excellent.

- But you're so good that...

I'm not in fact good.

Let's see the legs, little one. - Sir!

- What? You're irked, baby?

Kean!

- Fanny!

You do it with the chicks now?

- What are you doing here?

Oh, I've found a friend.

Let's go drink at The Black Cock.

And me?

- Ah, yes, the aspiring actress!

Come, come, what're you doing?

- The legs, no?

No, you had to refuse.

- Why? If I want to be an actress...

But it's not in your character.

You should say...

"What horror!"

- Here:
"What horror!"

What're you...

- Silence! We're rehearsing, here!

Silence! That's better, though.

- What horror!

With voice more pitched.

- What horror!

Let go more.

- What horror!

With an offended air.

- Why?

Because I offended you!

I speak well, Fanny? - Sure,

you're a young girl.

- A young girl

without experience,

who's never had lovers,

who now runs home

because it's too late. Come, Fanny.

I've had lots of them, lovers.

- Ah, yes? How many, let's hear.

One, two..

...22!

- O! What a career!

Go to sleep, little virgin.

At this hour babies go to bed.

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